Boston Brooks

 My father and I just got back from a trip to Lightning Ridge to look for opals. We had a great time and we were much more successful than we have been, panning for little specks of gold. Mud collects on the bottom of the ocean, and gets compacted into rock. Then then rock cracks and water fills on those fissures. Over time silica is deposited in those fissures. The silica is commonly a greyish blue colour (potch), but sometimes comes out sparkly. This is what we call opal. Over time, through geologic processes, the mudstone is carried upward, above sea level. In Lightning Ridge they bore tunnels into the mud stone looking for opals, and the gravel they dig out is just left on the side of the road. In fact, the roads are lined with this gravel. When it rains the mudstone is washed away, leaving behind the potch and little fragments of opal that the miners missed when they dug up the gravel. Fossickers walk along the side of the road looking for the sparkly stuff.  I collected ...

 I am in the process of commissioning a 3d model of the demonic cows from the secret cow level in Diablo II.  See image: I have been researching 3D printing and moulding processes. I have ordered the guts of an mp3 player that comes with a motion sensor to play sounds when someone walks past. I plan to make a cow statue that moos at you. That's all for now, Boss Update 5/1/2022 I asked for a model that was fat and cartoonish with stubby legs, as true to the original (pictured above). Here is an example of what I said I didn't want: Here is what I received: I will work with this for now. All for now, Boston. Update 28/1/2022 If I'm going to produce statues and figurines I'd better learn how to make and use moulds. I decided to start off easy with a simple frog design using paraffin wax. Simple frog design: Frog design with pour spout: Frog in situ.     Pouring the mould.   The mould is now set: Extracting the model: Mould ready to use: Melting wax: Mould in use: ...

 Reina was a DnD character I player using a class that was not available on DnD Beyond, so this was where she lived. The DM is doing a new campaign based of Diablo 2 and I am playing Cassia the lightning/javelin ranger. Reina is a name that means queen in the old language and she carries herself with a regal air. She speaks only when she must, but she does things right while displaying minimal effort. Such is her grace and her consecrated beauty. Race:    High Elf Class:    Alternate Ranger Level:    9 Alignment:    Lawful Good Armour Class:    17 Initiative:   4 Speed:    30 Proficiency:    +4 Max Hitpoints: 77 (Tough) Passive Perception:    13 Investigation:    11 Insight:    13 Ability Score: Modifier: Saving Throw: Strength: 8 -1 +4 Dexterity: 1 8 +4 +9 Constitution: 12 +1 +2 Intelligence: 13 +1 +2 Wisdom: ...

 I've recently been on holiday in NSW, and my uncle gave me a pile of sapphire bearing gravel which he'd added gold to. I had lot of fun sifting through it and I'd love to go back and collect more of the stuff. I got the impression that the minerals in the gravel would glow under UV light, so I bought a UV flood light and some electronics to make a UV strobe. I could use the strobe to tell me if I'm digging in the right place. Only 1% of the bits of gravel glowed under the spotlight so that was a bust. I'm also thinking of looking for gold. I've been thinking a lot about how I could make my own metal detector. I purchased a solder-your-own metal detector kit, MDS-60, and it's not great. I could detect a 5c coin from around 5mm. It's a start, but I'd like to build a metal detector that can compete on sensitivity to small pieces of gold as an expensive unit. Here is a video of the device in action  With a bit of fine tuning I was able to achieve detect...